Kit Harington feels he's "made mistakes" playing Jon Snow on "Game of Thrones," and it sounds like he sometimes wants to stick the character with the pointy end, to make him less angsty and more "interesting."

Season 7 starts up on July 16, and the cast and producers are now all over the place to promote the new season. Several months ago, TIME went to the Northern Ireland set to talk to the stars during production. Harington teased a "huge seismic shift" in Jon's growth this season, while admitting he's never been quite content with the character that made him famous.

Even a character like Jon Snow, as close to a pure hero as possible as Season 7 begins, has outgrown the box he originally came in. Snow, an illegitimate child never embraced by his father's wife, is a James Dean daydream of Sir Walter Scott. "I made mistakes and felt that he wasn't interesting enough," says Kit Harington of the way he's played Snow. We're in a Belfast hotel bar, and Harington is squeezing in a coffee before he makes an evening showing of Manchester by the Sea. "That sounds weird, but I've never been quite content with him. Maybe that's what makes him him. That angst." His character has been slowly absorbing lessons about duty and power—and "this year there is this huge seismic shift where all of what he's learned over the years, suddenly ..." Harington trails off. "He's still the same Jon, but he grows up."

He has learned a lot over the past seven seasons, while still being the same Jon. You know, Entertainment Weekly asked the Stark actors which child Ned Stark would be most proud of, and even though it's an impossible question, it makes you really think about how much the surviving kids have changed -- Jon, Arya (Maisie Williams), Sansa (Sophie Turner), and Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright).

But, yeah, sometimes Jon can come across as brooding and moody and a bit one-note. (As opposed to more vibrant characters like his lady love Ygritte.) He's a brave hero -- and easy on the eyes -- so not only can he get away with it, he even has both fans and in-show characters pushing him forward at every opportunity. They see something in him, even if Jon (and Kit) doesn't see it himself.

Harington recently told SFX Jon is in as much "mortal danger" as everyone else now, after a season where he felt relatively safe because they had just killed-off then revived Jon. No more free passes. But we still don't think that's what the "lone wolf dies" quote was about...